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I took his hand. “Truce.”
“Now, is that so hard?”
The hand holding wasn’t, but the unexpected kiss had been. “I guess not.”
“It’s for your own safety, Kelly.” He squeezed my hand.
I returned the gesture. “Sorry, you just surprised me.”
He pulled his hand back and turned left on Independence. “When you see your boyfriend, you smile. You can’t wait for him to hold you. You can’t wait to kiss him.”
“I got it. High school romance. Maybe we should pass notes in class.”
He gritted his teeth briefly and turned quiet. My sarcasm hadn’t been appreciated.
He turned right across the Mall.
“Where are we going?”
“I made a reservation at a nice little Italian restaurant I know.”
The tourists in their T-shirts and shorts had thinned somewhat from the mid-day peak, but many were still on the Mall and Constitution Ave.
“I learned something,” I told him, “about the guy who wrote the note.”
“Go ahead.”
“He doesn’t understand the locks, because he didn’t tell me how many entrances to set the temporary code for.”
Adam nodded but didn’t say anything.
“So he’s probably not one of our security guys.”
“Or the omission is intentional, because otherwise it’d be obvious he’s in security.”
I hadn’t considered that. Cat and mouse might be harder than it seemed.
A block later, I glanced left, trying not to be obvious. I decided that even if he was a Cartwright, Adam was a damned sight smarter and better looking than Harold.
I snickered at the comparison. Adam’s hair might be too short, but at least he wasn’t prematurely balding.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing.”
“Go ahead. I can take it.”
“A boyfriend of mine would let his hair grow out a little.”
He nodded. “I can do that.” He looked over for a second and smiled. “And my girlfriend would let her hair down.”
I pulled my purse off the floor and started releasing my chignon. I deposited the pins in the purse pocket I dedicated to them. A purse could never have too many pockets. Sweeping my hair around one shoulder, I gave it a quick brush. “Better?”
He nodded as he turned into a garage near City Center Plaza.
Back on the street, he turned north and took my hand. “It’s a few blocks. Are you okay walking?”
“I can keep up.” I’d chosen lower work heels today.
